310 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pal). Doc. 



The comparative standing of these crops as food producers 

 is shown in the table, to which I invite your attention : — 



Comparative Productive Capacity and Cost. 



It will be noticed that .the number of calories of poten- 

 tial energy produced by an acre of either mangels, Swedes 

 or potatoes is approximately the same, — a little more than 

 6,000,000 ; but this number of calories is produced at widely 

 different costs. The acre in corn produces approximately 

 one and two-thirds as many calories as either of the others, 

 and at very nearly the lowest total acre cost. The relative 

 economy of these crops as food producers will be more ap- 

 parent if we reduce the results to some common unit. Let 

 us take for this common measure 10,000 calories, and find 

 what this amount of energy costs w T ith each of the crops 

 under consideration. Calculation shows that 10,000 calo- 

 ries of energy cost: with corn as the crop, $0,033 ; with 

 mangels, $0,112; with Swedes, $0,051; with potatoes, 

 $0,083. 



In view of these results, there would appear to be no 

 doubt as to the superior economy of corn put into the silo 

 as a crop for food product ion ; and I may state here, without 

 going into details, that carefully conducted experiments in 

 feeding for milk, both at Amherst and at a number of our 

 other experiment stations, have given results entirely in 

 accord with the scientific deductions to which I have called 

 attention. Thus, at Amherst 40 pounds of mangels feed, 

 in comparison with thirty pounds of corn silage, — the same 



* A calorie is the quantity of heat necessary to raise the temperature of a kilogram 

 of water from 0° to l° centigrade. 



